THE FAUNA OF A COAL-PIT AT GREAT DEPTHS 187 



food the worms could obtain by ingulfing such material, unless 

 it be that as it occurs on the pit floor there is mingled with it 

 decaying wood derived ultimately from the pit - props. Such 

 conditions would approximate to those of its natural environment, 

 for Mr Wm. Evans, in recording this variety from Midlothian, 

 says of it, that "though delighting to live among dead leaves 

 and dead branches, it is by no means confined to woodland." 

 Consideration of its normal habitat would lead one to 

 assume that it has been imported to the pit with the pine 

 props, but from the material at hand and the information with 

 which it was accompanied, I am unable to say definitely that it 

 has established itself in the subterranean workings. 



A word may be said regarding the specimens. They are 

 rather under the usual length of the variety, varying between 

 35 and 40 mm. in their contracted state in alcohol. The 

 numbers of segments are also less than normal 93, 99, 102 though 

 they fall well within the recorded range of variation. The colour 

 is well marked a pale bluish red near the head fading away 

 towards the clitellum, but continuing along the median dorsal 

 line as a pale delicate pink. The final 4 or 5 segments are 

 flushed with a darker pink, a fact to which is no doubt due 

 the name " gilt-tail " attributed to this variety by Rev. H. Friend. 

 Characteristic of the variety are the " tubercula pubertatis," which 

 in the form of a continuous mound " pubertatswalle " extend 

 over segments 28 to 30. 



PROTOZOA. 



Mycetozoa. 



13. There occurred here and there, but not commonly, on 

 the surfaces of the pit-props, colonies of one of the commonest 

 of British Slime-Fungi or M.yc&.ozoa.Stremonitis fusca, Roth. 

 The variety rufescens, Lister, was indicated by the fine reticulation 

 composed of minute dots (three in general on each side of a 

 mesh), which was revealed on the surface of the spores by 

 microscope examination with oil-immersion lens. No differences 

 could be distinguished between these colonies and the descriptions 

 of normal specimens ; the sporangia had glossy black stalks, were of 

 large size, well developed, averaging 8-9 mm. in height, of the usual 

 purplish brown colour, and grew in close clusters. The spores 

 were pearly grey in colour. Stremonitis fusca is obviously an 

 import with pit-props. Its interest lies in that it probably serves 



